James 1:5-8
Here are 4 signs that often mean you may be blocking God’s blessings from coming into your life by thinking about someone too much.
1. If Thinking About Someone Is Leading You to Take Actions That Contradict God’s Will for You, This Is a Sign You Must Stop Thinking About Someone to Receive God’s Blessings
We often minimize the dangers of unhealthy thinking because we believe only our actions are what truly matter. It’s true that our actions can often bring much more damage into our lives and into the lives of others when compared to mere thoughts, but it’s important to notice the link the Scriptures teach us about between our thoughts and our actions. Romans 12:1-2 explains:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
In verse 1 Paul implores us “to present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice” to God. But then in verse 2, Paul teaches us that to honor God with our bodies we must also honor God with our thoughts. When our thoughts are not renewed and are instead being “conformed to this world,” we end up losing the ability to “discern what is the will of God.”
So one way to know if God is leading you to stop thinking about someone so you do not miss his blessings is by examining the actions you are taking. Bad actions are a result of bad thinking. If you want to be blessed by God through following his will for your life, you must “be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
2. If You Are Thinking About Someone So Much that You Are Getting Tempted to Blame God for Not Giving This Person to You, This Is a Sign Your Thoughts About This Person Are Blocking God’s Blessing
When it comes to God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom, there has been much theological debate over the ages. But whether you lean more towards the Calvinistic side or you lean more towards Arminian side, there are two truths that neither side can ever deny if they claim to be biblical. Both sides will explain these two truths differently, but after all the explanation, if you believe the Bible you have to agree with these two truths: 1. God is responsible for salvation. 2. Man is responsible for sin.
Again, how each theological camp gets to those two points will be different, but if you arrive at any other conclusion that would contradict either of these biblical truths, you are going against the Scriptures.
I bring that up because these two truths can also help us to detect whenever our thoughts and human reasoning are leading us astray. For as James 1:13-15 teaches:
Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
So if you are thinking about someone so much that you are starting to sin and you are also blaming God for not giving you this relationship, this is a sign your thinking about this person is blocking God’s blessings from coming into your life.
3. If Thinking About This Person Is Causing You to Be “Double-Minded”, This is a Sign You Are Blocking God’s Blessing from Coming Into Your Life
When trying to find clarity about a relationship questions we have, oftentimes God gives us a direct answer that brings us much peace at first. But then some time goes by and we often begin to revisit those old doubts and questions we once had, “Did God really tell me to move on? I’m confused again.” “Maybe I misheard God. Maybe I should keep hoping this person comes back into my life.”
When God gives you an answer to stop thinking about someone and to move on and then this is marked by a godly peace you know comes from the Lord, you can lose that peace if you start thinking about this person again at a later point. James 1:5-8 states:
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
So God will give you wisdom about your relationship questions, but if you have doubts about the wisdom he is sending you and you keep flip-flopping about this relationship no matter how clear God makes it, then this would be an example of being “double-minded.” One minute you believe this, but then next minute you believe that.
Ask God for wisdom, but then you have to trust God’s answer once you know he has spoken. Otherwise you will just keep falling into doubt at later points and thus stopping yourself from moving forward with the Lord and into the future blessings he has for you.
4. If Thinking About This Person Is Preventing You from Enjoying the Blessing of Your Newness in Christ, This Is a Sign God Wants You to Stop Thinking About This Person So He Can Bless You
The greatest blessing of all is our renewed relationship with God. Whenever our minds are thinking about things God does not want for us, this hurts our relationship with Jesus. Ephesians 4:17-24 proclaims:
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
I don’t know if God is telling you to let that person go or if he is telling you to keep thinking about them because one day you will be together. I just know that we must all obey God with our thoughts if we hope to experience the newness of life that he has given to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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